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It’s Time for Changes!

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. – Dalai Lama XIV

I’m writing this post as a continuation of my previous blog about caring and having a hope for our future. If you do really care about our beloved country and its future, you can actually do something for a better Indonesia rather than just sit and hoping that it will change as time goes by.

I am encouraging everyone to take actions based on your passion and what you like. Because I always believe that what you do will only be fruitful if you do it with your heart. Below, I will give you a list of things that you can do:

1. Donate for Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW)

Indonesia is one of the countries in the world where corruption is widespread and has become a significant contributor to the fragility of the country’s economy. In 1998, Indonesia ranked fifth and improved to ranks 7th in 2006 in the world’s record of corruption according to Transparency International.

About one-quarter of ministries suffer from budgetary diversions in Indonesia. Households spent approximately 1% while enterprises spent at least 5% of monthly company revenue on unofficial payments. Social costs due to corruption in Indonesia include the weakening of government institutions and the rule of law (Combating Corruption in Indonesia, World Bank East Asia Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit 2003).

The Reformasi era since 1998 blew a fresh wind of public voices against corruption. In many places at the local level, citizens began to move to judge corrupt bureaucrats and demand their resignation. It is at this conjuncture that ICW was established. Initiated in June 1998 by a number of concerned lawyers and NGO-activists, ICW strives for supporting the creation of a clean bureaucracy, politics and economic system. The following objectives were formulated: a) to raise public awareness of its rights to adequate public services and access to information; b) to introduce concepts of public service and business ethics among the professional community; c) to contribute to a legal and institutional reform process aimed at eradication of corruption; d) to build the capacity of civil society to control the public decision-making process; e) to investigate and disclose corruption practices and campaign for a stigmatization of businessmen, officials and politicians involved in corruption; and f) to help institutionalizing a social movement in corruption eradication as a part of the democratization movement.

If you consider to support ICW to combat corruption crucial issue in the process of political, social and economic democratization, you can join them through this link. You can also take actions by reporting those who allegedly involve in any corrupt activities through their website.

Girl Effect Movement is a campaign that leverages of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families, their communities, their countries, and the world. It’s about making girls visible and changing their social and economic dynamics by providing them with specific, powerful, and relevant resources.

This campaign is created by Nike Foundation in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation, United Nations Foundation, and Coalition for Adolescent Girls.

You can find the major problems that girls who live in poverty are facing and what we can do to help them in below video.

They open themselves for public donations that you can find on their website. You can donate for the whole programs they run or you can choose one specific program that you want to donate. To get to know further about them, you can also follow their Twitter or Facebook page.

Books for Indonesia is a Chicago-based registered non-profit organization dedicated to collecting English language books from schools, libraries, and individuals to be further distributed to those in Indonesia. It was created on May 2012, and up to now, they have donated 5,932 books.

In their website, you can request for books that you need and also (if you are interested) how to donate your book.

Sahabat Anak is a non-profit organization that provides quality education and children’s rights advocacy in an effort to encourage and inspire Jakarta’s street children to escape urban poverty. They campaign is to stop giving this street children money. Their community consists of volunteers who are concerned about the welfare of street children and wants to demonstrate love through friendship.

You can support them in ways that most suitable for you. They have some programs that you can support for:

Donation: to support their regular activities in providing nutritional meals and medical supplies for the children, support their operational costs for electricity and place they need for the marginalized children to study.

Scholarship program: to support the children to continue their study. The children will receive IDR 150,000 each month to support their education (books, school fees, and photocopy costs), health (once a month check up), and counseling for both children and parents.

Volunteering: for those who are interested in volunteering and becoming friends with the children, you can join them as teachers, mentors, counselors, event organizers and many more! 🙂

If you have any other information about the social activities which we can support, you can leave the information on my blog page and I will be very happy to add them on my list so that people will know more communities they can join. And if you feel the information provided here is very useful for you, please share them so people can join us to make changes and differences!

I am Indonesian, I am proud being Indonesian.. And I will do something for my beloved country. Join me 🙂